As his homeland is plunged into sub-arctic temperatures, one Dane is much warmer than his compatriots this winter. Intrepid 35-year-old Torbjørn Pedersen is contemplating Christmas in the Caribbean as part of his quest to visit every country in the world without stepping on an aeroplane – and living on the equivalent of just £12 a day.
“I’ve wanted to visit every country in the world for as long as I can remember,” Pedersen tells the Guardian over the din of cockerel calls on a crackly line from St Lucia. “It was one of those childhood dreams, like being a fireman or a ninja. Then you grow up. I was told: ‘It’s impossible unless you’re a millionaire.’ But my father saw an article about Graham Hughes from Liverpool, who set a world record in 2012 for visiting all the countries in the world without the use of aircraft. I thought, maybe I could do that. All my friends were settling down with children and Volvos and cats. And I wanted that too, just not yet.”
Pedersen spent 10 months researching the possibility of taking off into the unknown. As a shipping and transportation consultant by trade, he secured sponsorship from Ross Offshore and Ross Engineering to cover some of his costs, then sold most of his possessions and sublet his Copenhagen apartment to cover the rest. The Danish Red Cross got wind of his mission and asked him to be a goodwill ambassador, writing about his trip in return for help with access to some of the more closed countries such as North Korea.
His family encouraged him. “Dad even told me that if he got sick and died while I was away, he didn’t want me back for the funeral. Luckily he’s pretty healthy.” Planning was going well, but there was one obstacle. “I have a serious girlfriend,” says Pedersen, “and even if I only spend a week in each of the 203 countries on my list, it will take me at least four years.” So how do you break it to your other half that you’re leaving them for four years? “You do it smiling,” he says. “I’m lucky - she understands that this is my life’s dream and she supports me. She’s a doctor so she has a very busy life too.”
He set off on in October 2013 hoping to beat Hughes’s record by visiting the 193 UN member states as well as additional territories without going back to Denmark or setting foot on a plane until he’s ticked them all off (Hughes was forced to fly back and forth to the UK for personal reasons). “I’ve already visited 68 countries and the tough thing so far is tearing myself away after such a short amount of time,” says Pedersen. “It’s like only getting to eat the frosting on a cake. I meet so many nice people who say things like, ‘wanna catch up next Tuesday?’ And I have to tell them, ‘I can’t, I’ll be in Canada …’ or somewhere. You miss out on friendships. I’d love to spend a month in each country but that would take me 16 years. And my girlfriend won’t wait that long.”
Pedersen has seen staggering landscapes and places of jaw-dropping beauty, but it is the people he remembers most vividly - “like the ticket clerk on the station in Moscow, or the woman in Poland who took me in and cooked for me when I arrived in the middle of nowhere at midnight,” he says. “I’ve experienced amazing hospitality like this all over. It restores your faith in humanity. There’s no doubt that there’s evil in the world, but most people are just getting on with life, being nice to each other and talking about football and the weather.” He says that the trip has made him feel as though the world is a better place: “It’s complicated, sure – but nothing is black and white anymore. The world is grey – in a good way.”
Dominica is next on the list for Pedersen, somewhere many people would dream of spending Christmas. But for this Dane, there’s no place like home: “I miss the Danish winter - I have Viking blood, so I’d love to feel freezing again. Just for one day.”
How Pedersen spends his budget: costs for current day
Bottle of water $3 (East Caribbean dollars) (£0.72)
Eggs $7
Bread $2.50
Bus from the south of St Lucia to the north $8
Bed for the night: $80 (“The Caribbean isn’t cheap, but the next two nights are free as someone’s putting me up. So in my head I’m dividing this by three.”)
Miniature wooden surfboard $2 (“I buy a souvenir from each country I visit and then gift it forward to someone in the next country.”)
Total: $49 (£11.70)
